Chapter 15
Gia sat at the island enjoying the view of Brock puttering around the kitchen in nothing but a pair of jeans. “What are you making again?” she asked.
“Omelets,” he said. “Do you like peppers?”
“Yup.”
He turned and pulled one from the fridge and returned to the cutting board. The diced pepper joined the onion and white mushrooms in the frying pan. “Meat? I have some nice garlic sausage.”
She made a face. “Not in an omelet.”
“Vegetarian for the lady. I hope you like cheese in yours.”
“Of course.”
He smiled at her and turned to stir the veggies before dicing up just enough sausage for his egg. He seemed so intent that she watched him work in silence. It was nice to watch a man putter in the kitchen, looking like he belonged there, like he knew what he was doing. Not that she didn’t like cooking, but it was fun to imagine the two of them working in this big kitchen to make something spectacular together. At least the daydream kept her occupied while he cooked.
He flipped her egg out of the pan onto a plate and presented it to her with a flourish. “It looks delicious, thanks.” Her stomach growled loud enough that he heard from across the island.
He laughed. “Eat up before you eat me.”
“You didn’t like it?” she said, arching her eyebrows.
He mock growled and went back to cooking while she ate. They were just finishing their brunch when his cell phone rang. “Might be important,” he said.
“Go on. I can clean up a bit.”
He nodded and answered the call. A moment later she heard him jogging up the stairs.
She got the dishes into the sink and ran the water. Dish soap was easy to find under the sink, and thankfully cloths were right next to the bottle of fluorescent yellow liquid. She switched the faucet over to fill the rinse sink and her phone rang.
“Gia, it’s your father. Where are you?”
“Not at work,” she said.
“Oh, thank God. Your phone at the condo went to voicemail and so did your cell phone.”
“Sorry, it was a busy morning,” she said, blushing. She was glad he couldn’t see her.
“Are you safe where you are?”
“Yes. And I can stay a while. When they get those terrorists out of City Hall, I’ll come over and reassure Mom, okay?”
“Gia, where are you exactly?”
“I’m at Brock’s.”
“Gia, get out of there. Please.”
“Dad, we have police outside and the house is plenty big enough. Brock’s not going to hurt me, and nothing is going on between us.” Now, that was a lie, but she didn’t need anyone going to the papers with their —and she certainly wasn’t going to admit to her dad that she was sleeping with her boss.
“Gia, just get out of there. Get away from Brock. Oh shit, honey, I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“Dad? Dad!” The line went dead.
“Is everything okay?”
She spun around. “Shit, you startled me. My dad just called and then he hung up on me. But he was adamant that I not be in this house. It was weird and a little worrying. What about you? Good news or bad?”
“Can you wait here for me?” he said.
“I thought we were both under lockdown.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“We are, we were. Remy just called, The Human Order has the warehouse. Jane is sure someone followed her to work. Jules needs a safe place to shift—he doesn’t do well with stress like this.”
“And what are you going to do about it? You can’t retake the warehouse from those people! You’re the mayor, Brock. Call the police, they’ll handle this.”
“I can’t let the police transport Jules. He doesn’t like uniforms. I have a safe room downstairs.”
“What?”
“I come from a long line of shifters, remember? I need to get him here.”
“Wait, isn’t Jules the bear from the airport?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to bring him here?”
“Yes. And then I’m going to lock him in the cellar. Will you wait here?”
“I’m not helpless. If you don’t need to be locked down, then…”
“Dammit, Gia! I do need to be under lockdown. What I’m about to do is beyond stupid. They’re watching all of us. I don’t know how they figured out the Jane’s identity, but it’s only a matter of time before they ID Remy too. He’s gone to try to get Jane to safety.”
“Here?”
“No. I don’t have room for all of them. We’re hoping we can use the pack’s safe house, if the Human Order isn’t watching that too.”
“If it’s so stupid, why are you going?”
“If I don’t Jules might hurt someone, and then Remy must kill him—if they cop don’t do it first. We don’t need that, not now.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“My bear won’t hurt you, but Jules doesn’t know you. It’s not safe. And when you see us drive in, you need to go upstairs so he doesn’t see you. I don’t know how bad he’ll be. I can control him, but I don’t need any surprises.”
“I don’t like this.”
She was upset, he could see it. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “I don’t either, but I need you to trust me.”
She huffed. “Fine, play the trust card.”
“Gia…”
“No, it’s okay. Go. Do the cops know about the warehouse?”
“No. There’s nothing they can do right now. They need to focus on City Hall. The warehouse is private property. We only need to get them out of there by the next full moon. Or better yet, I’ll sell the place and buy a new safe house somewhere else. That’ll confuse them.”
“Fine. Go. I’ll go upstairs and read a book or something.”
“Does that ‘or something’ involve clothes?”
She pushed him away. “Don’t you have something important and dangerous and heroic to do?”
“You’ll wait here?”
“Yes.”
He kissed her lips this time and then smiled at her. “Thank you.”
“I’m not happy with you,” she called after him. She heard the front door slam. She sighed and went back to the dishes. She got a plate washed when her phone rang again.
She dried her hands and answered.
“Gia, have you talked to your dad today?” her mom said.
“Just a few minutes ago, why?”
“He won’t pick up the phone.”
Gia’s heart started to beat a little quicker. “I’ll give him a call, okay?”
“Thanks.”
Gia settled on the stool, took a deep breath, and dialed her father’s cell number.
It picked up on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Oh, thank God. Dad, you had Mom worried.”
“Your father is a little busy right now.”
“Who is this? Where’s my Dad? Why do you have his phone?”
“Your dad is comfortable in his office, and that’s where he’s going to stay.” There was talking in the background and then the stranger said, “Actually, he’s asking for you. I strongly suggest you be a good girl and come down to the office as quickly as possible. Your dad is comfortable, for now. We wouldn’t want that to change.”
“Are you with Human Order?”
“What a clever girl.”
“What do you want with my dad? He’s human.”
“And so are you, and yet you’re in a shifter’s house right now. Don’t worry, it’s not our goal to hurt humans.”
“Is that why you shot me?”
“An unfortunate accident. Let’s hope your father doesn’t suffer a similar one before you arrive.” The line went dead.
She called 911. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“My father, Giancarlo Carosa, is being held hostage at the main office of Carosa Holdings, top floor.”
“How do you know this? We’ve received no calls from inside the office.”
“I just called my dad’s phone and someone who was not my dad threatened to hurt him if I didn’t get down there. That sounds like a hostage situation to me.”
“I’m sorry, but all of our on-duty units are currently busy. I’ve reported your emergency and flagged it high priority. As soon as there is an available unit we will check into it.”
“That’s not good enough!” she screamed. “They’re going to hurt him.”
“I’m sorry miss, but all our active officers are busy now. Things are tense across the city.”
“The man who has my dad, he said he was with The Human Order.”
“I’ll add that to the report miss. Can I get your name for the record as well?”
“Gia Carosa. Look, I’m at Brock Tandell’s house and there’s a squad car parked on the curb, can’t you send them?”
“That’s not my job, miss. I’ll send this report straight to the police chief, and it will be up to him to reassign the car in front of the Tandell residence. Is there anything else?”
“No. Thanks for nothing.”
She hung up and started pacing, the dishes forgotten. She paced out of the kitchen into the hall and turned, the keys on the side table catching her eye. She’d assumed she was stuck, that Brock had taken her car because they had switched vehicles. But Brock was a billionaire—there was no way he had just one car. And those were her keys sitting on the side table. Of course, getting out of here without the cops following her would be a problem.
“If they were assigned to watch the house why would they care about people leaving. I’ll have a harder time getting back in,” she said out loud. “It’s worth a shot anyway.”
She snatched up the keys, grabbed her phone, and hurried out. She couldn’t lock the front door, but Connie and James were home and there were cops out front.
She slid into her car, reset the position of the seat, and backed out. The cops didn’t follow. She pushed the speed limit all the way to her father’s building. From the outside, there was no sign that anything was wrong. She rushed inside and into the elevator without looking at Sandra at the front desk. The elevator was impossibly slow. She watched the light move from floor number to floor number until she reached the top floor.
Here things were finally looking out of place. Her old desk was empty. Carol was rigid in her chair, and she kept glancing over her shoulder at the big office door. When she saw Gia, her eyes got wide.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed. “Get out of here.”
“So, they have him in there?” she said, gesturing to the door with her chin.
Carol nodded. “You don’t want to mess with them. Get out of here.”
“They said I had to come or they’ll hurt my dad.”
“And then you can inherit the damn company, it’s not worth your life. Get lost.”
The door swung open rendering their argument a moot point. The man in the doorway had an assault rifle in one hand. He looked over his shoulder into the office, and said, “She’s here.”
“Send her in.”
Gia raised her chin and walked into her father’s office, her back straight and her heart hammering. Her father was at his desk, unharmed. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“You have no right to involve my daughter in this any more than you already have,” Giancarlo said.
“What happens now?” Gia asked.
“Sit,” said the man with the hand gun. He waved the gun in the direction of the couch. “We only want to talk.” He put his gun away and settled onto the couch next to her. “We just need information.”
“What kind of information? What do you think my father knows?”
“Nothing,” he said, “Nothing except how to get hold of you. You’ve been very useful, Gia, and now we need your help again. Where is Brock Tandell? Our observer saw him leave his house just before you called us. Where did he go?”
“I don’t actually know,” Gia said.
He shook his head.
“He didn’t give me an address,” she said. “He told me why he was leaving, that was all.”
“Why was he leaving?”
“Because his clan was in trouble. You guys did that, didn’t you? You attacked his closest friends just to bring him out?”
“She’s a smart one, Giancarlo. You’d do well to give her a promotion when all this is done. Who did he go after? The girl or the psychotic fool?”
“I don’t know. I thought the clan was all together. All he said was that he had to leave, to help them. He was going to bring them all back to his house.”
It was a half lie, but she hoped that the idea of facing all the werebears in New Orleans in one place would make them hesitate. She also hoped the police car would stay right where it was, another deterrent to attacking his house.
“Then everything is going per plan. Will be a real shame to burn that piece of New Orleans history down, but it can’t be helped. Now, my dear, I need your cell phone. We can’t have you alerting your boss to what’s coming.”